


Like The Swirl of Ashes

by fadedink



Series: Lazy Hazy Summer Daze [15]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-20
Updated: 2013-07-20
Packaged: 2017-12-20 20:33:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/891554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fadedink/pseuds/fadedink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like The Swirl of Ashes

**Author's Note:**

> [Lazy Hazy Summer Daze](http://idiosyncratic.livejournal.com/701573.html) #15 for [](http://azrhiaz.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://azrhiaz.livejournal.com/)**azrhiaz** who deserves better than I'm capable of creating. Hopefully she likes it anyway. :)
> 
> Warning: Well, if you haven't read The Hobbit, you're about to spoiled as hell. Don't come crying to me. You have been warned. This is not a fluffy fic.

Thorin doesn't feel the pain of the blow that drops him. His body simply jerks and crumples to the ground. He finds himself looking up at the sky, the clouds, thoughts scattered as leaves in the wind. He hears the yell, the hoarse _NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!_ , but isn't sure what throat uttered it.

And then they are there, his kin, standing over him, blades flashing in the dying sunlight. Or perhaps it's him that is dying.

Fili is the first to fall, orc arrows finding their target in the mad crush of bodies. He's already stopped breathing by the time he lands beside Thorin, one arm outstretched in a final effort to protect his king.

And Kili fights on. Twisting and turning, black hair flying around his head in a dark halo, he strives to keep them safe even as orc blows find their way through his defenses. When his knees hit the torn and bloody ground, Thorin tastes despair, thick and gritty on his tongue, dark and black like the swirl of ashes blotting out the sun.

It is only then that Thorin finds the strength to move his weakening body, shifting enough to curl his fingers around Kili's wrist, feeling the fragile heartbeat under his grip faltering. Fragile and weak like the fluttering of a sparrow's wings, and then it is gone. Dark eyes that danced with laughter, mischief, are fixed, unblinking, and Thorin closes his own eyes and grieves for what might have been.


End file.
